Austrian Open 2021: Your form guide for Diamond Country Club

It's Austria to the rescue for the second year in a row.

Amid yet another scheduling nightmare for the European Tour, which led to the scrapping of the Portugal Masters, the Austrian Golf Federation has jumped in at short notice to stage this week's event at Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg.

After the tournament at Vilamoura was called off due to ongoing travel difficulties because of Covid-19, the Tour re-arranged the calendar to accommodate the Austrian Open.

Last July, Diamond Country Club also made an unexpected appearance on the schedule and was the first tournament to be staged following the initial Global lockdown.

In 2020, Austria's national open ended four months of inactivity on the European Tour.

Keith Pelley, chief executive of the European Tour, said: "Throughout the pandemic, we have had to be agile with our scheduling.

"So we are naturally grateful once again to Diamond Country Club and the Austrian Golf Federation."

On the tee

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, this week's event is largely a tournament consisting of rank and file members of the European Tour.

Just five of the world's top 100 golfers are teeing-up but there's a sprinkling of young talent in the field too.

Check out the latest betting ahead of this week's Austrian Open

'Top seed' is world No 82 Thomas Detry. The Belgian is yet to win on the European Tour but has been knocking on the door for the past few years with seven podium finishes to date.

He's posted a couple of top-10s this calendar year and tied-eighth at Diamond in 2020.

Check out the latest betting ahead of next month's PGA Championship

Two young up-and-coming Europeans to have tasted victory in the past are Rasmus Hojgaard and Sam Horsfield.

Both have won twice during the last 18 months, with Horsfield posting back-to-back top-10s in Kenya recently - his only two outings of 2021 so far.

And 28-year-old American Kurt Kitayama is another two-time winner on the European Tour.

The California-born pro recently returned to the world's top 100 following a series of decent performances during the past three months.

In addition to a runner-up finish in Kenya, Kitayama registered a brace of top-20s in Dubai and Saudi Arabia - two significantly stronger fields.

African challenge

In tournaments of this stature, the South African challenge should always be taken seriously.

Garrick Higgo, Justin Harding, Dean Burmester and Jacques Kruyswijk are competing in Austria, with Harding a winner already this year on Tour.

And if experience is going to be important this week, then three players with decent Diamond Country Club histories are Joost Luiten, Dave Horsey and Chris Wood.

Finally, if you're looking for an outsider, then Sebastian Rodriguez Garcia may be ready to register a maiden victory.

The 32-year-old Spaniard is a late developer who has worked his way through the Alpine and Challenge tours, to reach where he is now.

He was fourth in last month's Kenya Open and occupied an identical position in this event last year.

Course details

Diamond Country Club, which is located around 20 miles north-west of the Austrian capital Vienna, will be staging a European Tour event for the 11th time.

Opened 21 years ago, Diamond's championship layout is a flat parkland course where water comes into play on nine holes.

There are also a handful of tricky dog-legs and interesting risk/reward opportunities to encounter en route from the first tee to the clubhouse.

Twitter: Andy Swales@GolfStatsAlive

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

Note: Diamond did not host European Tour event in 2019.